PM assures Nitish action to tackle Bihar floods

 Faced with floods despite less than normal rain, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought the Centre's help for de-silting the river Ganga as the only solution to  recurring floods.

Modi assured “immediate and positive action,” including a national silt management policy, Kumar told reporters after the meeting.

Nitish said he sought better silt management in his state under the Modi government’s Namami Ganga project.

“If attention is not paid now, it will put a question mark on the project’s success,” he said, adding that he wanted to cry at the plight of the Ganga in his state.

Kumar, in a letter to the Prime Minister, has also demanded that the Centre seriously consider “removing the Farakka Barrage. The Bihar Chief Minister said that the Barrage is blocking the natural flow of the river Ganga and causing silting. 

“Even less rainfall causes flood because there is heavy silt deposit in the Ganga,” he said.

He said he had raised this problem during UPA regime as well and sought a national policy for silt management.

“We were assured that the issue would be resolved but nothing was done by the Centre. The state faces problems of both floods and drought due to silting,” he said.
He said 20 districts in the state were affected by floods and 95 people lost their lives. About 5.10 lakh hectares of land was under water. 

Kumar urged the Prime Minister to send a team of experts to assess the situation. “The Prime Minister assured me that experts would be sent and a decision taken soon,” he said.